Lanyon Valley Woes

The old Lanyon Valley connundrum persists. Hopefully Minister Hargreaves can give the contractors building our bigger better Tharwa Drive a bit of a heave-ho. 6 months of road works… actually, I think the work started November 2008, is taking its toll on the community. We have to leave for work/the school run about 40 minutes earlier than usual, because fellow Lanyon Valley residents have given up on using the constricted Tharwa Drive bomb site. They rat run through Gordon… causing locals to face interminable delays getting out of the ‘burb.

At least our fellow Valley residents have learnt to be nice folks, and allow each other to merge nicely at T intersections and the like. Minister Hargreaves assures me it will all be finished by September.

However, after checking the TaMS web-stie, I find that there is LOTS of information about the upgrade.

Tis amazing what you can find out if you look.

Here is your informatin LanyonValley.

Now you can go and complaint to the Chief about the project.

Gobbo said :

Lanyon Drive Upgrade
Background:

Roads ACT and the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) have developed a preferred option for the upgrade of Lanyon Drive between Tompsitt Drive and the Monaro Highway from a two lane road to a four lane divided road with cycle lanes in each direction.

Construction of Stage 1 from the Monaro Highway to Sheppard Street is now complete.

Stage 2 which is scheduled to start construction later this year, will complete the duplication of the road between Sheppard Street in the ACT and Tompsitt Drive in NSW, a total distance of 1.4 kilometres.

This project is funded by the Federal, ACT and NSW governments and is expected to be completed by early 2011.

Roads ACT and the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) have developed a preferred option for the upgrade of Lanyon Drive between Tompsitt Drive and the Monaro Highway from a two lane road to a four lane divided road with cycle lanes in each direction.

Construction of Stage 1 from the Monaro Highway to Sheppard Street is now complete.

Stage 2 which is scheduled to start construction later this year, will complete the duplication of the road between Sheppard Street in the ACT and Tompsitt Drive in NSW, a total distance of 1.4 kilometres.

This project is funded by the Federal, ACT and NSW governments and is expected to be completed by early 2011.

It did appeaar to take them quite a while to put the bridges on & what lanes have been opened were a rush job. If you travel down Drakeford Drvive/Tharwa Drive you will notice that the left lane is higher then the right lane & the depth changes for both lanes every so often. Most likely the cheapest contractor.

The same goes for Belconnen Town Centre, it was meant to open the Monday after ANZAC Day, work was only just finished a month later. But more work is still bein done to some of the Bus Stations these last few weeks.

I’d been in touch with TAMS months ago about why there was no information on their website re: the Tharwa Dr duplication – their response was that the information should have been there, but that it wasn’t. Helpful.

In any event, construction didn’t begin in November 2008 – they put signs up all along Tharwa Dr in the lead up to the election stating that it would, no doubt an attempt to be seen to be doing something about it. From memory, it actually started in January or February of 2009.

Seems to me that the duplication is taking so long for two reasons – the need to drop in two bridges, either side of the Drakeford Dr / Tharwa Dr roundabout, and the need to widen the existing lane in order to accommodate a cycle lane (despite there being a bike path running right alongside Tharwa Dr).

I’d be incredibly (and pleasantly) surprised if things were finished by the end of this month – but whether it is or it isn’t, the upgrade itself is way overdue (thanks to Save the Ridge for causing funds to be diverted from this project to fight their pointless campaign to stop the GDE) and the length of time it is taking to get done is ridiculous. Don’t even get me started on the total lack of information available regarding the project or the unwillingness of departmental staff to divulge it.

I guessed that it was for a bike lane when I saw them widening it. The confirmation was that they’ve painted in a bike lane in the northbound section between Box Hill/Woodcock and Mentone.

As I’m sure you can imagine, not only is widening the road to accommodate it a fairly significant pain (not to mention time consuming), but having to widen the existing bridges either side of the Drakeford Dr/Tharwa Dr roundabout as well just makes things ridiculous. We’ve added christ knows how long to the cost and timeframe of this project to cater to the few who ride out of the Lanyon valley. As you point out (and as I had done also) djk, there is a bike path right next to the road – from the Lanyon shops all the way up to and past Drakeford Dr.

I too stirred TAMS about the lack of information about this major piece of work on their website. Only in July (from memory) did anything go up on their site. The project had been going for more than 6 months by that stage.
That was after the evening a contractor left a lane blocked off into the Johnson drive roundabout and caused a huge traffic jam.

…the need to widen the existing lane in order to accommodate a cycle lane (despite there being a bike path running right alongside Tharwa Dr).

anyone care to enlighten me as to why this is required? there is a bike path literally 3 metres away from the road.

has it actually been confirmed that this is what is happening?

In an attempt to calm the bike hype, it appears to me (although I may be incorrect), that Tharwa Drive is an extension of (in the form of duplication) Drakeford Drive. Drakeford Drive also has hard shoulders, that were included in the building of it, I guess originally as a break down lane. The notion of on road cycle lanes (love it or hate it)didnt come along until way after Drakeford Drive was built. It seems to me that the duplication of Tharwa Drive is what I have pointed out, an extension of Drakeford Drive, so why wouldnt they build a hard shoulder as well, regardless of whether it will be used as a cycle lane and/or break down lane. Personally, I am more interested in the time being allocated to building so many bus stops (with shelters)on stretches of the road where there will be little use (between the 2 new bridges). A good idea would be to install shelters elsewhere in the Lanyon Valley, so we have more than 5 shelters for the whole of the valley. I mean, fancy sticking 10 bus shelters in the Hyperdome precinct, where you already have easy access to shelter anyway.

Minister Hargeaves remains committed to the Lanyon Valley, last time I looked, as member for Brindabella. Actively engaged in Lanyon valley affairs. Campaigned strongly as an advocate of our concerns. Is a member of the current Cabinet, and perhaps has the ear of the Chief Minister who does have responsibility for roads.

Now that insignificant trivia is out of the way…

John Hargreaves told me he’d called his department and they explained to him that there were drainage issues not identified early on in the project, which in fact lead to significant delays back in June. He also mentioned that the issue of folks running through the back streets of Gordon was well known, and that short of building new roundabouts (temporary) at the site of the new traffic bottlenecks, there was little that could be done.

I accept all that.

I guess its frustrating for all concerned.

And, will it fix the issues that we had, priot to the duplication?

Time will tell. Look at the GDE, particularly near Black Mtn.

And for what its worth, I had sympathy and a little empathy for my cousins in Gunghalin, trying to commute to Civic over a very lengthy time… even thought I don’t inhabit that region.

Empathy and sympathy for other people’s concerns is a good thing.

Jumping on the righteous, supercilious technicality bandwagon in relation to the minutae of government structures is not useful.